Ah Yes - another "Statistical Masterpiece" which surely confirms
the scepticism of many ( including myself ) and clearly
demonstrates the absolute truth in the claim that "Statistics
can "Prove" whatever you wish".
Surely these same "statistics" were used to "clearly demonstrate"
the causal links between smoking and violent TV games, or was it
gun ownership and road-rage ?
I remain less than convinced ! Perhaps an offer of similar funding
could change my mind ? ( Warning - at my age you will have to think
in terms of very BIG numbers ).

mary moore

07/15/13

What a bunch of balognia and a complete waste of time and paper!.

rbc

07/15/13

How does the original article 'harsh physical punishment" translate to "spanking?" I see a bit too much journalistic
creativity in an effort to grab headlines..

jonathan meyers

07/15/13

What specious
nonsense...

Joseph Dieker

07/15/13

And ashtrays cause cancer.......

Rufus McDingus

07/15/13

It is interesting to me that the title of this piece speaks of
spanking, yet the critical language of the survey question speaks of
being "pushed, grabbed, shoved, slapped, or hit" - a little
disconnect here? While I received appropriate "spankings" as a child,
I would never have responded affirmatively to the question because I
was NEVER pushed, grabbed, shoved, or slapped. Your survey describes
abuse, which is distinct from appropriate spankings. You and your ilk
have a motive for spreading crap like this. I hope everyone
recognizes it clearly..

william ray PhD

07/15/13

I'd love to see how they reconcile the fact that prior to the middle of the last century, practically every
child in the US was disciplined physically, while obesity was almost unheard of, and now that politically-
correct discipline is the flavor-du-jour (which children call "getting off scott free"), obesity is considered
an epidemic..

Interested Bystander

07/15/13

Well, it's the parents' "fault" that children are obese in the
first place, so yeah, let's load this crap on them, too. Shame on
all of you parents raised AND disciplined your children with
nothing but love!.

MLT

07/15/13

Oh, please............... what a crock.

Michael Brown

07/15/13

Another retrospective association , not causality, paper to prove a political point and pad the CV. I hope these people(sorry, not PC), they don't make our laws. Wait a minute, they do because in a country as great as this we don't way fat, arthritic adults with heart disease..

castlesaraRN

07/15/13

Oh please. Thank goodness the other commenters also realize what a
load of rubbish this is. All this article amounts to is another TV
ad for 1-800-lawyers: "Were you spanked as a child? Are you now
overweight or have had a heart attack? Call us - we can sue." So
now how many people are going to try suing their parents?? THANK
GOODNESS my parents gave me the occasional spank. I have no heart
disease, eat right, exercise and am NOT obese. Well adjusted adult,
responsible professional registered nurse, thank you Mom and Dad
for not listening to these so-called 'experts'. This sort of
nonsense just decreases respect for the medical professions..

BobFx

07/15/13

They are remiss in not tying these acts to global warming also..

mrd

07/15/13

I would like to know
how much money was
spent on this
study, that could be
used else where.
Make people
accountable for
their weight and
help them. In stead
of giving them more
excuses why they are
over weight..

traumarevolution

07/15/13

Here is a much larger study:http://acestudy.org/
Never forget: denial of victimization is the first defense to surviving it..

Internist8

07/15/13

Perhaps we are
seeing the &quot;CNN
spin&quot; since Dr.
Gupta now on medpage
today..

joseph de luca

07/15/13

Blah, blah, blah... And Charles Manson (the murderous leader of the pack that killed Sharon
Tate for the young 'uns who don't know about that) graduated from Father Flanigan's Boy's
Town. This is really stretching credibility that mere spanking (of which I disaprove and never
did) is leading to all these issues. And believe me there is a BIG difference between a mild tap
on the butt and hitting, kicking, tabasco sauce feeding, boiling water, cigarette burns and
belts. Treat kids fairly, help them make good decisions, watch their diet and hopefully they'll
turn out caring, loving members of society. But then again maybe they'll end up at war and
get PTSD, or pick the wrong associates and do heroin or worse, or get into bullying because
they don't know how to stop or are afraid of "losing their friends". Life is just not that easy -
don't spank and everybody's lean and mentally ok. Wish there was a way to guarantee health
and happiness but there isn't..

Greg Haitz, DC, CSCS

07/15/13

Lumping spanking in
with "harsh"
physical punishment
such as pushing,
slapping or hitting
is ridiculous.
What's worse is how
these studies are
presented, "Spanking
in Childhood Tied to
. . . ." Sounds
like the authors
have a bias against
spanking and found a
nice way to lump it
in with real
physical abuse.
"Participants were
considered to have
received physical
punishment as a
child if they
responded with
'sometimes or
greater' to a
question on how
often they were
pushed, grabbed,
shoved, slapped, or
hit by an adult in
their home. The
authors cautioned
that some of those
physical
interactions may
also be considered
maltreatment or may
have been coupled
with other forms of
abuse or
maltreatment.".

Sue B

07/15/13

No need to go to the
comics section for
my laugh of the day
today! I'm turning
MedPage off now,
long suspected it
was a big
time-waster, but
kept getting sucked
in by catchy
headlines, only to
find that the
catchier the
headline, the more
useless the article.
I will find a better
place to get my
medical news.
But, thanks for the
entertainment..

Sue B

07/15/13

Two giant problems
with this article,
first is tremendous
number of variables,
second is use of the
word "Spanking" in
the headline, while
this form of "abuse"
is not even included
in the list given on
the questionnaire.
A link between
physically abusive
parents/caregivers
and future health
problems as
described by pete
would be in line
with other research
on the effects of
stress on child
development; the
spankings that I and
most of my peers
received as a child
were formalized
affairs, accompanied
by clear explanation
as to what I had
done wrong and the
knowledge that I had
seriously
disappointed a
parent. They never
rose to the level of
abuse.

Editor's Note: You and others who have commented on the headline are completely right. We should not have used the word "spanking". It was a bad choice of words and the headline has been changed..

carrie been spanked

07/15/13

Most ridiculous article I have read in a long time! The saddest
part? We taxpayers pay for this nonsensical research (?). God help
us all!.

h

07/15/13

Pretty much anything
can be made to look
the way you want it
to if you bend your
data enough. It
would be interesting
to see a study that
states "people who
were spanked as
children grow up to
be just fine"
Spanking is not
beating or child
abuse..

EC rn

07/15/13

Spare the rod and
spoil the child.
There is nothing
wrong with good,
controlled
discipline. No
wonder our country
is running amok. No
child discipline at
home,or school and
soon spanking will
be child abuse.
Loving discipline
and boundaries are
what children need.
So sad to see these
construed studies
called "science" to
fit an agenda..

Dr.Dubrawsky

07/15/13

Spanking children, has never been a prelude to obesity and
cardiovascular diseases associated.
It is the under-nutrition, malnutrition and lack of sleep(The right
REM sleep),that are the milestone of today's Metabolic Syndrome.
Let us not forget Pellagra, the 4D disease:Dermatitis,Diarrhea,
Dementia, Death.
Today, kids are been spanked less, still have mental and physical
impairment,why?You must know the answer.
It is time to make our society, happier and healthier. This is
something that money can not buy!.

Tom Habib, Ph.D.

07/15/13

Granted...the studies data is just correlations which...any basic
statistic course will tell you doesn't mean cause and effect. This
study only suggests future research objectives. That's all. I also
note the misleading headline. [Editor's Note: That headline has since been changed.] What is really noteworthy, is the
reaction to this study many of the above are having. Frankly the
insensitivity, ridicule, and minimilization is shocking coming from
health care providers! "My pappi used a switch. And it never hurt be
none. Ya spare the rod, you spoil the child" How does one develop
this level of cynicism? Are you just burnt-out or have you always
been this insensitive to people and issues like parenting? Guess
what folks, we have not learned everything there is to know about
parenting and your seat of the pants dismissal displays only your
ignorance. Shessa. Is this politics or science?.

RRoth

07/15/13

First time I've ever commented. If the research wasn't a waste of good money, the title is at minimum far too
misleading. Why not say physically abused instead of physically punished. I almost shared on FB with the
attachment "because all the non disciplined children are already dead of OD or in prison". Thats not extremely fair
so I refrained. My brother, sister and I most always got spanked when needed (and maybe a couple of times when
we didn't) but we are productive citizens educating patients in cardiac rehab, fighting for breast cancer awareness
and treatment, repairing engines, and supporting lots of non-punished perfectly healthy citizens on welfare with
our tax dollars :) Oh and my father who was also spanked as a child is disabled from severe CAD resulting in
stroke (because he was disciplined enough to go serve his country and get hosed down with agent orange). You
chose the wrong article here Medpage..

Penny Edgefield

07/15/13

Tom Habib, PhD, thank you so very much for your observations about the stunning display of
animosity and ridicule from almost every other commenter. Such mean-spirited sarcasm is
frightening, given the descriptions of the kinds of punishment that were actually included in the
study (not in the original headline). How can people who are interested enough in science and
in health care to read MedPageToday, have nothing whatsoever to say about the severe and
unwarranted punishments described in the study? If you've never been shoved, head-slapped
or yanked around by someone who outweighs you by well over 100 pounds, suddenly and with
no explanation about what you did wrong, then lucky you. If anyone treated you, an adult, that
way today, it would by definition be a crime. Offering your self-righteous anecdotal evidence
about how well you turned out in spite - or because - of a "formal affair" spanking serves no
one. Health care should absolutely include assessing, documenting, and ultimately preventing
the long-term damage resulting from harsh punishment..

Michael Brown

07/16/13

Perhaps healthcare providers are fed up. I am. What should be taken from this paper? Is there any responsibility if they are wrong?.

ruth peavy

07/18/13

1)The original title
was wrong. It's been
changed. 2)Survey
evidence is quite
low on the
statistical
weight/validity
scale. Family
anecdotes are off
the bottom:
statistical validity
is sample based, not
anecdotal. 3)The
report CORRECTLY
noted association. A
claim of association
is NOT a claim of
cause and effect.
4)Reading the actual
article would likely
provide better/more
precise definitions
than available in
this report. 5)The
fact that one is
unfamiliar with
psychiatric
diagnoses or
diagnostic axis does
not invalidate their
usage. 6)Several
mechanisms were
proposed (NOT
concluded); proposal
of a mechanism is
the first step in
planning next-stage
investigation ... I
am appalled by the
vituperation
apparently resulting
from cursory
scanning of the
précis of an
article, or perhaps
from scanning only
the (initially poor)
title of the précis..

poor md

07/19/13

BLAH, BLAH BLAH
LOOK YOU ALL SPANKING LOVERS
SOME KIDS ARE SENSITIVE TO HARSH VOICE ONLY
sorry for the caps
there is sooo much evidence that poor parenting leads to trouble
and you all chose to ignore it
no more spanking
i was never spanked, and was able to finish medical school.

Sister Girl

07/20/13

not buying it...now abuse-mental and physical, abandonment,
orphaned, that type of thing probably would but spanking? don't
think so.

Molly_RN

07/22/13

I can tell you what hitting a child teaches. It teaches that if I
am bigger than you or have power over you I can hurt you. It isn’t
love. It isn’t correcting the child. It is abuse. There is no
reason to hit anyone. It also shows how out of control you are that
you have to hit someone much smaller than you that can’t fight
back. If you smack me and then give me a hug to prove you love me;
I know you are a nut case. My abusive mother beat me, threatened
me, abandoned me multiple times in large stores far from home,
swore at me, called me names, etc. etc. It took me 50 years to get
past it. Please don’t tell me it is only a swat. How would you feel
if your spouse or your boss did the same to you when you did
something they didn’t like?.

Yvonne Barash RN BSN

08/26/13

This article seems to have hit a nerve with a lot of people. Some
of the vitriol in a lot of these comments just goes to show how
much denial goes on in abuse, also "identification with the
aggressor" comes to mind..

Yvonne Barash RN BSN

08/27/13

Molly_RN, you are so right when you state, "Please don't tell me
that it is only a swat." If we swat/hit/spanked a patient, we
would lose our license. Why on earth should it be different for a
child?.

This survey is a poll of those who choose to participate and are, therefore, not valid statistical samples, but rather a snapshot of what your colleagues are thinking.

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